Generally speaking, it is known for a wireless carrier to provide an access channel through which wireless client stations (such as cell phones, wirelessly-equipped PDAs, and other wireless equipped devices) can access content from servers on the public Internet. In a typical arrangement, for instance, the wireless carrier may provide a radio access network (RAN) that interfaces between the wireless client stations and the carrier's core packet-switched network. In turn, the carrier's core network may then be connected through a firewall with the public Internet. With this arrangement, a wireless client station can send a request for web content (e.g., an HTTP request), via the RAN and the carrier's core network, to a content server on the Internet, and the content server can respond by providing the requested content to the client station.
While much of the content on the Internet is freely available upon request, other content is considered “premium” and is available only for a fee. Typically, when a user sends a request for premium content to a content server, the content server will responsively prompt the user to pay for the requested content and, upon receipt of payment from the user, will then send the requested content to the user. Alternatively, upon receipt of the premium content request, the content server may refer to a “digital rights management” (DRM) database to determine whether the user has already acquired the right to access the content (e.g., paid for the content) and, upon thereby determining that the user has already acquired the right to access the content, may send the requested content to the user.